


It's the Thought that Counts

by cordeliadelayne



Series: The Parker-Ryans [2]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gift Giving, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:34:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28058502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: Ryan wants this Christmas with Jess to be special. If only he could think of the appropriate gift.
Relationships: Jess Parker/Tom Ryan (Primeval)
Series: The Parker-Ryans [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2152029
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	It's the Thought that Counts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fififolle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fififolle/gifts).



> Written as a Christmas present for the lovely fififolle who gave the prompt “Ryan tying to buy Jess a gift.”

“You can't go wrong with chocolate.”

Ryan looked up from his perusal of a gift catalogue that had been pushed into his hands, unprompted, as he'd navigated himself around Westfield Shopping Centre the previous day. He'd shoved it into the carrier bag full of biscuits, tea bags and coffee headed for the ARC's cleaning staff as a thank you for the latest bit of dinosaur related blood and guts they'd had to clean up, and then not given it much thought.

It was only when he had handed over the supplies to the head of the cleaning crew with a sincere apology on behalf of himself and Cutter that he'd spotted it again and remembered that Christmas was just around the corner.

“Not very original though, is it?” Ryan said, surprising himself.

Becker raised an eyebrow. “Depends who it's for.”

Ryan carefully avoided looking at Becker and flicked through another couple of pages. This _thing_ that he had with Jess was going exceptionally well, too well really compared to Ryan's other romantic misadventures, and he didn't want to do anything to put her off. Like ruin Christmas.

“Definitely nothing with orange, though,” Becker said, somewhat cryptically, and then gave Ryan a reassuring pat on the shoulder as he disappeared back out of the kitchen with his mug of coffee.

Ryan wanted to do something a bit more original than go down the box of chocolates route, though he had no idea what that might be. Was it too early for jewellery? Certainly too early for rings and he'd never dream of giving a woman clothes, far too many pitfalls to navigate. Though a nice scarf, maybe? That said caring but not too much, didn't it?

Music was out, they'd already discovered that was one area they definitely weren't compatible. Books were a possibility though he'd have to sneak a look at her kindle if he wanted to make sure she didn't already have it which might be tricky. Make-up definitely not and bath salts seemed too impersonal. On the other hand the lingerie section was too suggestive for something that might be opened in front of her parents so he skipped over those pages all together.

Maybe shoes, Jess loved shoes. But then would she want to tell him her shoe size? Was that something that women cared about?

Ryan sighed, closed the catalogue and then his eyes. The last serious relationship he'd had with a woman was when he'd been at Sandhurst. He'd even gone so far as to buy a ring, a beautiful sapphire encrusted band that he thought Hannah would have loved, if she'd ever seen it. But before he'd ever had the chance to ask she'd told him that she couldn't be an army wife, it just wasn't for her. Never mind that he'd been in the army when they'd met and that later, much later, she'd married his old army fitness instructor.

“Who pissed in your cornflakes?”

Ryan sat up and settled a withering glare on Cutter who, like always, was completely oblivious. Then he spotted the familiar red lipstick on Cutter's cheek and raised an eyebrow.

“Jess has been hanging mistletoe,” Stephen explained, entering the room behind Cutter and moving over towards the kettle. “Tea?”

“Please,” Ryan agreed, trying to decide how he felt about his girlfriend having kissed Cutter this morning before she'd kissed him. Lester had insisted that their shifts only overlapped once a month for propriety's sake. Ryan had calmly kept the fact that Jenny and Becker and Stephen and Cutter and Abby and Connor were all fucking in various rabbit like ways to himself; as the only officially official couple in the ARC he and Jess had to appear somewhat professional.

“Cutter's right though,” Stephen said kindly, ever the diplomat, “you don't look great.”

“Long shift,” Ryan replied. “And - " He pushed the gift catalogue across the hideously orange Formica table towards Cutter. “Christmas,” he added with a shrug.

“Ah, yes, minefield,” Cutter agreed. “I once gave Helen a pair of shears.”

Stephen paused in stirring the teas as if trying to decide whether this was something Helen would or not have wanted. Ryan was similarly in a state of confusion, deciding that thinking about Helen Cutter in any way pertaining to romance, or worse Cutter and romance, was a step too far.

“It'll be nearly a year,” he explained, more for Cutter's benefit than Stephen's who had actually been there when Ryan had asked Jess out for dinner, only to have to disinvite Connor who'd been standing nearby and thought that it was an excursion for the whole team.

“And you want to get something special but not too special?” Stephen guessed.

“Something like that.”

“Keep the receipt whatever you get,” Cutter said as if imparting some great pearl of wisdom. Stephen handed Cutter his tea and then passed a mug to Ryan.

“Cutter doesn't give good gifts,” Stephen explained.

Cutter looked as if he was about to protest when the anomaly detector went off. Ryan gulped down some of his scolding hot tea and, just as he started to follow the others out of the room, threw the gift catalogue into the bin.

* * * * * *

Ryan had spent far too many Christmases in foreign lands to feel particularity attached to any of the usual British customs but he had to admit that Jess had done a fantastic job of decorating the ARC. There were hints of her personality in every pink twinkling light and glittering bauble but there were also practical considerations in effect like the position of the small tree off to one side well out of tripping range from anyone coming in or out, the twisting LED lights that headed from the atrium up to Lester's office were programmed to be off when Lester was not to be disturbed and even the mistletoe was hung carefully away from doors so that those who wanted to avoid them could. What that said about Cutter he hadn't quite decided.

“Your shift finished hours ago,” Jess said.

Ryan shrugged and pulled a willing Jess into his arms and let her settle her head against his chest. No one was around, the mistletoe was just above his head and everyone had come back from the Cretaceous in one piece. It didn't get much better than that.

Jess stepped back a little and he let his arms fall down her sides and come to rest on her waist.

“Hi,” she said, shyly, then stood a little on tiptoe to kiss him.

Ryan smiled into the kiss and tried not to think about the five shopping days left till Christmas.

* * * * *

The Sunday before Christmas saw Ryan furtively scanning Jess' bedroom for ideas. She was downstairs on the phone dealing with some IT related crisis of Connor's devising otherwise he never would have risked going through her drawers. He knew about the sex toys in the sock drawer so bypassed that entirely and settled for some of the lower drawers which disappointedly just seemed to be filled with knickers and bras.

Then he had the brainwave to check under her bed and found several storage boxes one of which was covered in pictures of Santa and his elves. Glancing at the door and then wrestling momentarily with his conscience he opened it and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that her present to him, his name written in glittering gold pen, was already wrapped. He was tempted to take the box out and shake it but then decided that his regression to childhood had probably gone far enough.

He almost leapt out of his skin when he heard Jess' voice on the landing and hurriedly pushed the box back and sat down on the bed pretending to have been putting his socks on as she came into the room.

“I know, Connor, but if it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit.” There was a long sigh and Ryan could almost hear her eyes rolling. “Yes, I'm sure that is what Abby said last night. Look, just leave it for now. It's nearly Christmas. Yes, yes, it's fine. I already told you....Right, okay.”

Jess put her phone down on the bedside table then flopped backwards on to her bed. Ryan reached a hand to her and she took it and put it against her beating heart.

“Dare I ask?”

“I wouldn't.”

Ryan pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Shall I make breakfast while you shower?”

Jess gave a tired grin and allowed Ryan to help her off the bed. “Best boyfriend ever.”

Ryan turned away hastily so she couldn't see his face but as she pressed a kiss to his hand before retreating to the bathroom he decided that it was probably fine.

* * * * *

Ryan hated Piccadilly. He hated it when a mammoth was barrelling down it taking out cars and buses and he hated it when it was full of people like himself who couldn't make up their minds about what they wanted until Christmas sodding Eve and tourists who stopped in the middle of the road to take pictures of the lights that were too fuzzy to come out properly.

Wishing, not for the first time, that he had his machine gun on him, he darted along the street, skipping around harried shoppers and trying to ignore the first fluttering snowflakes that landed on his nose.

Jess had agreed to take on the Christmas Eve through to Christmas Day shift so that Connor could spend Christmas with his mum and Abby (“I got definite proposal vibes,” Jess had informed him that morning) and so they had agreed, to Ryan's relief, to exchange their presents on Boxing Day.

The idea had come to him while he was cooking Jess' breakfast at the weekend. She had lots of fancy gadgets and cooking equipment but she hardly ever used them for cooking. In fact he'd never actually seen her do anything more strenuous than reheat a pizza in a microwave. When he'd casually asked her about it she'd shrugged and said that she'd rather spend her time coding than cooking, and why else would she be seeing a dashing soldier who could cook and disassemble a rifle blindfolded?

That had made him smile more than he thought it should and he'd almost burnt the sausages.

An elbow to the ribs from someone's umbrella had him coming back to reality with a crash. He glared futilely as the old woman with the unlicensed weapon dashed in front of a cyclist who swerved into a taxi and hurried inside Fortnum and Mason before he got involved in making a citizen's arrest.

The air smelled of lavender and damp fur and some sickly perfume that he could taste on the tip of his tongue. He asked a harried looking man in F&M uniform where the hampers were and careened off in that direction, fighting his way through the hoards.

It helped that he knew exactly what he wanted and after forty-five minutes of discussion with the salesperson and another forty-five minutes in the queue to pay he was crammed into a tube carriage and on his way home.

* * * * *

Boxing Day saw Ryan in an uncharacteristic state of nerves. He was wearing a green Christmas jumper (a surprise present from Lester) and an apron which read “Santa's Helper” (from Connor). Everyone else had settled for alcohol so Ryan's drinks cabinet was overflowing with Christmas cheer.

He had the smaller flat of the two of them, never having needed much in the way of belongings, but the better oven and he'd needed that to make sure that the turkey and trimmings were cooked to perfection. Not to mention the Christmas pudding and the chocolate brownies.

Jess' present was settled under the tree as was a selection of presents from some of Ryan's old army friends he'd decided to wait to open until Jess was there so as to make it less awkward. Jess had told him somewhat solemnly when they'd had their Christmas Day catch up that she was only going to open Lester and Lorraine's presents at work and then save the rest for opening with him.

Ryan realised he was being a bit optimistic that Jess wouldn't have an emergency that kept her at the ARC for another day but, exactly on time, Jess knocked on his front door.

“Merry Christmas!” she said, pulling him into a deep kiss before he could reply.

“Merry Christmas,” Ryan said once he was able and hastily shut the door against the cold. In all his haste to prepare he hadn't realised quite how much it had been snowing.

“Lester's convinced it's a new ice age,” Jess said. She handed over her coat, gloves and scarf and Ryan laughed as he noticed that Lester had apparently got everyone the same green Christmas jumper.

“You too?”

“Lorraine said he had them ordered especially. Did you find the switch?”

Ryan blinked, he had not in fact found any switch.

Jess grinned and showed him that, just under the label at the back, was a switch and suddenly the dinosaur on the front of the jumper started flashing red.

“Did somebody spike his punch?”

Jess laughed and shrugged and sank down onto the floor by the Christmas tree, casually eyeing up the presents. Ryan noted that she had a carrier bag almost bursting with presents in her hand.

“Not all of them are for me,” she said. “The cleaning staff wanted you to have something.” She handed over a box of chocolates with Ryan's name on them, signed by Wendy the head of the ARC cleaning crew. “Only you and Lester got something from them. I don't think they've quite forgiven me for the fire. Though I did tell them that it wasn't totally my fault.”

“I know,” Ryan said, trying not to laugh. Jess and Connor had been in some sort of competition to rewire the ADD and even now he wasn't quite able to follow what had gone wrong.

“So,” Jess said in an obvious attempt to change the subject, “food or presents?”

Ryan tried to put a serious expression on his face as if he were actually contemplating it but Jess kicked off her heels and rubbed a stockinged foot instinctively near his groin.

“Presents of course. This one first.”

He carefully pushed his present towards her and watched nervously as she read the card and then started to pull at the wrapping. It came away easily and she peered curiously at the hamper before opening it and starting to take out the various boxes. There were some plates and serving bowls decorated with holly, some crackers and party games, his and her Christmas pyjamas and a wooden advent calendar. Jess looked adorably confused and like she wanted to say something but instead pulled out the food portion of the hamper with its champagne and chocolate truffles and cheese board.

“You should open the advent,” Ryan said, before Jess could say anything.

Jess hovered over the calendar which was decorated in gold glitter and had a nativity scene carved into the top. She rightly guessed that Ryan wanted her to open number 25 so she did just that, pulling out a silver key on a piece of string.

“This isn't the key to your heart, is it?” Jess asked, grinning.

“More or less,” Ryan said. Jess looked up sharply. “It's the front door key to here. Or, well, more symbolically to the house we should get together. If you'd like. And – I thought, if we did we should...” He waved towards the piles of items she'd pulled out of the hamper. It had seemed a brilliant idea two days before but now he was having serious doubts.

“You want me to – you...Oh, Tom.” She patted the pyjamas and ran her fingers against their soft fleece. “Our own traditions for our own home.”

Ryan nodded, finding a sudden lump in his throat that was making it difficult to talk. That's what he'd wanted when he'd been cooking breakfast, and when he thought about being with Jess. It was home and wanting to have those things he'd seen other couples talking about, the same Christmas dinner each year, the same table settings, the same Christmas decorations. His life had always been so temporary but now he was ready for some permanence.

Jess he realised with a start was openly crying now, fat tears rolling down her cheeks which were puffed out in a huge smile. And she was nodding, seemingly too happy and emotional to speak. Then she moved over to Ryan and sat in his lap, putting her arms around him and crying softly into his neck.

“You make me really happy,” she said, laughing at the absurdity of her tears as she did so. “Happy tears!”

“I know,” Ryan said, pressing a kiss to her ear, “don't worry, I know.”

Jess hiccuped a laugh. “My present isn't going to compare to this,” she said. “Let's open it after dinner.”

Ryan was sure that her present would be perfect but he agreed to wait and went off to the kitchen to finalise the last bit of cooking while Jess took herself off to the bathroom to fix her face.

As he pulled out the turkey from the oven and put the kettle on for the gravy the only small worry at the back of his mind was how he was going to fare next Christmas. But that, he decided, was very much next year's problem.  



End file.
